Haptephobia
by Aya8
Summary: It started with a mistaken touch, leading to a soul mate found, and the realization that over the many thousands of years of living, said soul mate had developed Haptephobia, the fear of touching. A Hunter Redfern pairing


I don't know when I wrote this since I never posted it. It might have been around 2006. I only ever did one chapter, but I felt I should share it and maybe something might spark my interest again.

Title: Haptephobia

Summary: It started with a mistaken touch, leading to a soul mate found, and the realization that over the many thousands of years of living, said soul mate had developed Haptephobia, the fear of touching. [A Hunter Redfern pairing]

Chapter One:

"Hunter, is this the girl?"

He sighed heavily and glanced up from his council paperwork. "If you don't knock the next time you enter my chambers I'll be sure it's the last thing you do," he said, his voice dull and lifeless. His eyes did a quick assessment. "Yes, that's her. Bring her here."

The short, blond haired vampire swallowed, fear flashing in his brown eyes. His fingers involuntarily tightened around the girls milky colored arm as he pushed her forward, causing her to wince in pain, looking as if she wanted to yank her arm back. Only the fear held her back.

"Lift her chin up and turn it to the side," Hunter spoke dangerously soft, his eyes flashing as he inspected her. "What is your name?"

Both girl and vampire glanced up, confusion written all over their faces. "Me sir?" the vampire asked frowning.

Hunter stared at the incompetent vampire, his fingers itching to grab for the stake he had in his desk drawer. "No."

_When did I start having stupid staff members?_ Hunter thought, eyeing the vampire.

"Um, Kat," she whispered softly.

"Did I ask for a nickname?" Hunter growled, irritation slowing rising in him, his jaw clenching to keep his anger in. It hadn't exactly been the greatest day for him and this confrontation was grating his nerves. "And speak up or I might decide I don't need you and cut your throat. I _am_ rather hungry."

The girl visibly flinched at the look on his face, of the dangerously spooky look making on and off appearances in his eyes. A small whimper escaped her cherry colored lips. "Katra," she said, her tongue rolling the 'TR' together.

Her voice was smooth, sounding far more adult than she looked. Her hair was a glossy black and her skin so white she could have easily passed as a made vampire. Her eyes would have confirmed her vampiric state as well, being a dark silvery blue. If Hunter hadn't known for a _fact_ that she was human it might have thrown him off.

Her petite stature and fairy like facial features made her look like a twelve-year-old with a chest and hips, when in all actuality she was a seventeen-year-old with a very important destiny and completely ignorant of the Night World.

"It's hard to believe a little vermin girl like you has a hand in how the world will end or not end," Hunter chuckled, sounding a little disbelieving. "The meeting starts in about ten minutes, clean her up. There will be no rape, no drinking from her, and no hitting. If the council sees anything of mishandling they'll put her in Thierry's care and we can't have that, can we Lucian?"

The vampire shook his head hard, looking highly frightened and alert, as if waiting for the poisoness snake to strike.

Hunter walked forward, going carefully around them, turning on his side so as not to bump them, and then reached for the door, holding it open, hinting them to leave him be for those last ten minutes.

Just as they were about to walk out Lucian tripped, knocking the girl into Hunters chest and he froze, his eyes glazing over with panic and anger, his fingernails digging so hard into his palms he had crescent moon markings. He quickly pushed her away and backed up, almost running towards his desk to yank out the hand made stake with the Latin words _Pulverous Letum_, which meant 'dusty death'.

Hunter had found it amusing because in truth Lamia and made vampires didn't turn to dust after being staked as the popular belief was in the human world.

He gripped the smoothly carved, ash wood stake so hard that if it hadn't been carefully carved it would have sliced through his wood sensitive skin. He let the circular piece of fatality slip down his hand, his fingers stopping its fall by closing around the tip of the stake. He flung it effortlessly at the vampire, hitting him directly in the heart.

Lucian's eyes widened, filled with pain, and his hands instantly wrapped around the device. His face had turned red, his mouth forming one word before he fell dead to the ground. "Oh."

It happened so swiftly that Katra had barely blinked in the time span, but when she realized what had occurred she screamed. Hunter assumed, as any other human would have. He cringed at the pierce of it, his ears ringing.

"Would you stop it!" he snapped. "Be very grateful you did not touch my skin, else you would have joined him," he added with a growl.

Her mouth instantly snapped shut, her eyes widened and she backed into the wall as he walked towards the door once more. He pulled out a silver cell phone and speed dialed a number.

"Yes, right away," he mumbled into the speaker piece.

Just as soon as he turned the phone off and once again placed it back into his pocket a woman came into the door. Amelia was the best female assassin he had, more importantly she was like him in many ways. She was the one he could tolerate also the only one who knew his secret.

"Amelia, clean her up, dress her nicely, she has to make an appearance at the council meeting. I'll be assigning you to her to be her guard."

"But sir—" Amelia started.

"Five-thousand dollars for each day you're with her will be added to your salary," he said his teeth clenching.

"Yes sir."

Amelia jerked her head towards the door, making silent motions for the girl to follow her. "Don't try to run, I'll catch you in the blink of an eye."

As Hunter shut the door, the quiet surrounded him; a bead of sweat formed on his forehead and his breathing started coming faster before he was able to calm it. He held his hand up, watching it shake from the fear that seemed to overwhelm him.

What would he have done if he touched her skin?

Something he wondered often. It was different when he was feeding luckily, since his animalistic instinct took over, but his fear was a weakness he couldn't afford. He blamed it on idea of the soul mate principle, a used to be legend that even then caused him to avoid skin contact, but now his condition was worsening.

For the first time in his long life he felt he was about to lose control, felt that something was happening to him, something that would forever alter his path. He only knew one thing for sure, if that change that happened involved a human, he would gut the vermin and bathe in its blood.

To be continued…

Originally, it was meant to be a chaptered story, but as stated, I only wrote one chapter for this. This is just one of the many stories I found that was suitable enough to post up from such a long time ago.


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